The pro-Palestine campus protests this spring were one of the largest student movements in recent memory, and with Israel’s war on Gaza showing no signs of ending, it’s likely that demonstrations will continue. However, given Gov. Greg Abbott and UT President Jay Hartzell’s violent crackdown on protesters in which more than 100 students were arrested, incoming freshmen may feel like their First Amendment rights aren’t respected at UT. Here are some tips on how to know your rights when you protest – and know if those rights are being violated.
The first thing to understand is that First Amendment rights do indeed extend to Texans. Caro Achar, engagement coordinator at the ACLU of Texas, says, “Sometimes folks believe you don’t have the full extent of your rights in Southern states – that is not true. There is a vast network of organizations, activists, and advocates who believe in defending people’s right to protest. We will do everything we can to make sure that folks continue to have that right.” Campus is actually where you have the fullest extent of those rights, thanks to a 2019 law that turned all outdoor areas of public college campuses in Texas into traditional public forums. “Traditional public forums are places where your rights are basically at your apex. It’s where you are most protected,” says Achar. That means anyone can exercise their rights on campus, even non-students, which UT made a big deal about as part of their rationale behind the arrests – “there’s no such thing as an outside agitator,” says Achar.
Still, universities can create rules that are specific to a campus, concerning the time, place, and manner of a protest. What they can’t do is target a specific group of people protesting. This extends to the timing of the creation of a policy – thanks to a landmark 1969 Supreme Court decision in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District. Ahead of a planned Vietnam War protest, the school district had passed a rule specifically prohibiting black armbands, after they got wind that students were planning to wear them. The Supreme Court ruled that this was a targeted policy, and the district couldn’t prove the armbands were disruptive to the learning environment.
But there are still risks to protesting. Back in April, the UT administration justified arresting students by claiming they had violated institutional rules when they used amplified sound, wore masks to conceal their identities, and set up encampments. The university said this disrupted learning. They further applied those reasons to discipline students, and even after County Attorney Delia Garza dropped their charges, UT administration put at least three students on probation and suspended one for two years.
The UT Committee of Counsel on Academic Freedom and Responsibility – a seven-member committee made up of history, law, and education professors – recently found that those actions were unjustified, and wrote that the administration’s claims “rest on exaggerated or mistaken accounts of what happened, and are, in important instances, not supported by the language of the Rules.” They also found that even in cases where the protests were disruptive, UT did not make enough of an effort to “seek voluntary compliance before resorting to disciplinary charges or arrest.”
Unfortunately, the governor has doubled down on this targeted discipline for pro-Palestine protesters. On March 27, Abbott signed an executive order requiring public universities in Texas to review their free speech policies, specifically mentioning by name the Palestine Solidarity Committee as an example of a group that such policies should target. On its website, the ACLU writes that the order “seems to abandon the First Amendment’s requirement that the government not censor speech because of people’s views.”
So what to do if you think your rights are being violated? The first thing is to call the Austin Lawyers Guild. Before you attend a protest, write down their number on your arm; don’t just leave it in your phone. During the protests this spring, ALG worked all night to free the arrested and get charges dropped. If their hotline is inundated with calls, reach out to the Texas Lawyer Referral Service, Achar recommends. “One of the best things you can do is let someone who’s not at the protest know that you will be there and who they should call in case you are arrested.”
The ACLU of Texas has a detailed protest guide on its website specifically for Texas students, with advice on how to exercise your right to remain silent, how to end an encounter with an officer, and what to do if you are arrested. And luckily, if you’re overwhelmed by doing your own research on the ins and outs of legal protest, they’re holding a Know Your Rights webinar on Aug. 27, from 5-6pm.
This article appears in August 23 • 2024.